[Yonhap Photo]
South Korea warned North Korea Wednesday against misjudging a traditional alliance between Seoul and Washington as Republic candidate Donald Trump maintained a lead in the counting of votes in the US election closely watched by its allies.
The South's unification ministry expressed guarded optimism that the next US president would maintain the traditional alliance between Seoul and Washington "whoever wins".
"North Korea should not misjudge a solid alliance between South Korea and the United States," ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters.
Experts in Seoul and Washington agree North Korea will be a top security issue for the next US president. But there have been widespread public concerns in South Korea that Trump's win may amplify uncertainties over Washington's policy toward its allies in Asia.
Some 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defense pact dating back to the 1950-53 Korean war. Seoul pays some 900 million US dollars a year, or half the total cost for the US troop presence.
Trump, who thinks of alliances as a cumbersome burden sucking up taxpayer dollars, has accused Seoul of taking a "free-ride" from Washington on its defense. He even suggested that South Korea should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons for self-defense so as to reduce US security burdens.
Meanwhile, Trump's views about North Korea and its nuclear program have been little known. He has expressed his willingness to speak with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over a hamburger, rather than a state dinner.
The United States is saving money by keeping troops in South Korea, the American Action Forum (AAF), a US think-tank, said in a recent report, rejecting Trump's claims that Washinton has been wasting money by stationing troops in the Asian ally.
"In South Korea, it is likely that the United States is actually saving money by stationing troops there rather than at home," the report said.
"With revanchist Russian aggression and the renewed importance of the NATO alliance in Europe and the Chinese military build-up and North Korean nuclear ambition in Asia, the importance of the peacetime US military presence in Germany, Japan, and South Korea has perhaps never been more clear," it said.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
